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Food for Agile Thought #397: From Tech Debt to Tech Health, Avoiding Lousy Experiments, The Drama Triangle, Including Users in UX Workshops

by Stefan Wolpers | 2023-06-16 News

TL; DR: From Tech Debt to Tech Health — Food for Agile Thought #397

Welcome to the 397th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 47,417 peers.This week, we demystify technical debt, offering a tangible way to achieve tech health instead. Moreover, according to Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk’s actions at Twitter prompted industry reflection on the potential benefits of “firing hordes of middle managers,” reports Yahoo Finance. Also, Ken Norton describes Stephen Karpman’s model from the 1960s, identifying three roles people tend to assume when reacting to their environment, and we learn about fixing agile transformations in an interview with Peter Lam.

Then, Peter Yang discusses effective experimentation with Eric Metelka from Eppo, and we delve into how to build in public without revealing too much. In an epic article, Marty Cagan explores how generative AI could reshape product development, stressing the importance of embracing disruptive technologies. Also, we explore inviting users to participate directly in UX workshops and analyze into the “free to paid” conversion, often considered an indicator of business opportunities and product appeal.

Finally, Eric Chima and John Nevins Most advocate that most teams can benefit from eliminating estimations, supposedly an easy win in Agile. Moreover, we address that concerns rise over AI training on AI-created content instead of human-generated content and examine why some content engrosses us and others fail to pique our interest. We are closing this week’s edition with a simple question: How do you know your team’s Scrum Master is successful?

Food for Agile Thought #397: From Tech Debt to Tech Health, Avoiding Lousy Experiments, The Drama Triangle, Including Users in UX Workshops — Age-of-Product.com

Food for Agile Thought #396: How to Give Constructive Feedback, Cognitive Bias in Product, Learning Scrum Just-In-Time, Agile & UX: A Failed Marriage?

by Stefan Wolpers | 2023-06-09 News

TL; DR: Constructive Feedback Framework — Food for Agile Thought #396

Welcome to the 396th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 47,254 peers. This week, we learn about Roman Pichler’s new constructive feedback framework to help you to have difficult conversations with stakeholders, management, and team members. Moreover, we share lessons learned on ‘instilling Agile and Scrum knowledge based on a Just-In-Time strategy’ and point to the obvious: Working extra hard and overtime causes stress and burnout and will, inevitably, lead to mistakes.

Then, we delve into the psychology behind questionable decision product people make, from sunk cost fallacy to the Halo effect, and appreciate Steven Sinofsky’s epic essay on ‘patterns and practices in the creation, rise, and fall of platforms.’ Also, we analyze the intersection of artificial intelligence and product management, for example, ‘AI’s ability to emulate human cognition’ and provide insight into the effort to integrate User Experience & Design (UX) within the Agile software development frameworks: Agile & UX — a failed marriage?

Finally, we Look back at 20 years of the Double Diamond, now available in version 4.1, supporting the concept with a long list of product discovery practices, from the Concierge Test to the Fake Door Test to A/B testing. Lastly, Marc Andreessen goes all in on artificial intelligence, claiming it is a ‘way to make everything we care about better,’ and Google Cloud provides a free, curated collection of content on generative AI products and technologies.

Food for Agile Thought #396: How to Give Constructive Feedback, Cognitive Bias in Product, Learning Scrum Just-In-Time, Agile & UX: A failed marriage? — Age-of-Product.com

Food for Agile Thought #395: Micromanagement Is Good, Cracking Product Strategy, FAST Agile Beats Scrum, Tracking User Insights

by Stefan Wolpers | 2023-06-02 News

TL; DR: Micromanagement Is Good — Food for Agile Thought #395

Welcome to the 395th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 47,112 peers. This week, Jim Highsmith advocates that the agile community’s “don’t micromanage” tenet is entirely wrong; in other words: Micromanagement is good in some places. We then share a success story of replacing Scrum with FAST Agile, highlighting the differences between the two approaches, while claiming that a prerequisite for change is to make it simple and cheap. Also, we list reasons someone might not speak up when encountering issues, even in relatively psychologically safe environments.

Then, Peter Yang interviews Jackie Bavaro regarding practical tips on defining a product strategy and getting buy-in across your organization. Moreover, we learn about Notion’s ‘evolving internal processes, product reviews, planning cadences, and increasing shift to synchronous communication.’ Are you considering how to integrate generative AI into your current product best? Look no further: Aniket Deosthali details a proven approach to creating AI products. Also, we delve into how to ‘create a library of user insights to keep track of research findings.’

Finally, we learn how Agile works at Tesla; we list four team assessment categories, from checklists of key practices to quantitative assessments of desired outcomes. Moreover, according to David Heinemeier Hansson, running a flat organization requires substituting the traditional managerial approach with an asynchronous, self-managing paradigm. Lastly, Sketchplanations visualized Richard Feynman’s approach to understanding something deeply.

Food for Agile Thought #395: Micromanagement Is Good, Cracking Product Strategy, FAST Agile Beats Scrum, Tracking User Insights — Age-of-Product.com

Food for Agile Thought #394: Amazon Product Management Framework, Ethics of Agile Coaching, Product-led Transformations, The Dunning-Kruger Effect

by Stefan Wolpers | 2023-05-26 News

TL; DR: Amazon Product Management Framework — Food for Agile Thought #394

Welcome to the 394th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 46,957 peers. This week, we start with exploring the Amazon product management framework, a 10-step process. Moreover, we assess the state of ethics in agile coaching and apply Goldratt’s idea that a business aims to make money now and in the future to Scrum. Moreover, Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson interviewed Jim Highsmith, one of the authors of the Agile Manifesto, and we explore a magic technique to turn a boring Retrospective into an outstanding one.

Then, we reflect on the trend in product development of dropping the dogma and seeking what works, sharing an excellent primer on a problematic strategic decision with an often underestimated importance for your business to get you going. Speaking of what works for you: Lenny Rachitsky interviewed Gustav Söderström, Co-President, CPO, and CTO at Spotify, on what has worked for them.

Finally, we attempt to debunk the original findings of Dunning and Kruger, claiming that the actual effect is that “everyone thinks they are better than average.” We also dip into the meaning of IKIGAI and share a comprehensive essay mapping the similarities and differences between Sociocracy and Holacracy. Lastly, we point to research by the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard, shedding “light on what it takes for people to get comfortable with machine learning.”

Food for Agile Thought #394: Amazon Product Management Framework, Ethics of Agile Coaching, Product-led Transformations, The Dunning-Kruger Effect — Age-of-Product.com

Food for Agile Thought #393: The Double Diamond Problem, Why Agile Coaches Fail, Effort vs. Value Curves, Waterfall’s Comeback?

by Stefan Wolpers | 2023-05-19 News

TL; DR: The Double Diamond Problem — Food for Agile Thought #393

Welcome to the 393rd edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 46,731 peers. This week, Jason Godesky takes a deep dive into the well-established design process, pointing to the Double Diamond problem. Also, we reflect on the hype the agile coaching industry is experiencing, causing the market entry of less qualified players, and we listen to Dave Farley interviewing Kent Beck on a classic topic of the agile community: Is Waterfall experiencing a comeback? Moreover, we offer a primer to creating ChatGPT prompts for Scrum practitioners to get you started running.

Then, John Cutler states that the (product) world does not need yet another prioritization framework. Instead, he suggests prioritizing a focus area. We share insights and examples on dealing with PMF’s evolving, fluctuating, and changing nature, and Lenny Rachitsky interviews Ayo Omojola on the aspects of creating outstanding products. Also, we point to the importance of inspecting and adapting OKRs regularly and provide a guide on how to do this.

Finally, we appreciate Mark Graban interviewing Joshua Kerievsky, discussing how ‘agility’ doesn’t strictly mean ‘Agile’ in software, and Gergely Orosz shares an “interview with the four researchers behind a new developer productivity framework: The three dimensions of DevEx.” Lastly, we close this week’s edition with a simple question: Should we be polite to chatbots?

Food for Agile Thought #393: The Double Diamond Problem, Why Agile Coaches Fail, Effort vs. Value Curves, Waterfall’s Comeback? — Age-of-Product.com

Food for Agile Thought #392: Origin of Ideas and Innovation, What Agile Is Not, UX & Development, Culture of Listening

by Stefan Wolpers | 2023-05-12 News

TL; DR: The Origin of Ideas and Innovation — Food for Agile Thought #392

Welcome to the 392nd edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 46,619 peers. This week, we delve into the origin of ideas, sharing the results of seven research studies and revealing the people, incentives, and environments that create innovation. Also, we address misconceptions leaders harbor about agility; we examine the habits of high-performing teams and offer some guidance for adopting these habits on your team, and we share a primer on facilitation, answering a vital question: “What is a facilitator?” (The guide pairs well with this week’s blog post on: Agile Negotiations — Life Is a Negotiation; Why Would Scrum Be Different?)

Then, we share Jason Godesky’s belief that design and development are the two sides of the same medal when he explores a contested area: agility. Moreover, Alex Osterwalder dives into the art of testing and developing hypotheses, from desirability over feasibility to leveraging AI to testing in corporate or B2B environments, and Daniel Stillman points to the crucial role of conversations in product management: types, designing techniques, empathy’s significance, and facilitation’s role.

Finally, we introduce Kim Scott’s Get Stuff Done (GSD) wheel, where she clarifies that you must first establish the groundwork for collaboration through a listening culture for GSD to succeed. Additionally, we address statistics on change fatigue: In 2022, employees faced ten enterprise changes on average, up from two in 2016. However, support for change dropped to 43% due to change fatigue. Lastly, we ponder whether AI is comparable to a management-consulting firm like McKinsey. The parallels between the pervasive use of consulting firms and AI are apparent.